Make Your Own Seed and Potting Compost
By oldbadger
8 comments
With most of us feeling the pinch, buying seed compost and the like is now expensive, and although I grow up to 20 trays of seeds some years, I have never bought the brand names. What works well for me is seeking the cheapest growing bag (the discount stores are best such as the German supermarket chains), buy a small bag of sharp sand and mix 3 parts growing bag material with 1 part sand, if you are lucky enough to have good soil in the garden you can pass this through a garden sieve and add this, about 10% of the total. The sand allows the mixture to open up and thus even the smallest roots once the seeds start to grow can take hold. When planting on or out is complete, simply sieve the mixture and spread on the garden or use in flower pots and containers with added fresh mix to rejuvinate it. It works for me.
8 Mar, 2012
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Comments
I was just about to buy some more seed and potting compost,but as I have already got some sharp sand,I will try this method..although I usually add vermiculite ..which also works well...
13 Mar, 2012
Thanks for the tip. Its my first year sowing seeds. I've been mixing a multi-purpose compost with vermiculite (as per a tip I saw on Gardeners World). Seems to be working pretty well so far, I'm getting fairly good results. Will have to keep the sand idea in mind, may experiment at some point.
13 Mar, 2012
I haven't used multi purpose for seed sowing ,Samjp..as seeds don't need a rich compost..and seed compost hasn't much nutrient in it..but if you are getting results,that's good....
13 Mar, 2012
Bloomer I saw a tip on one of the Gardeners World episodes from Monty, saying rather than spend money on seed compost, mix multi purpose compost with vermiculite (50/50 mix) to reduce the nutrient content. I've been doing that, although I couldn't swear I'm using a 50/50 mix lol.
14 Mar, 2012
I decided to try it too,Samjp..as I have lots of vermiculite..
and some sharp sand left.and mixed some of both in..It was like making pastry...rubbing the lumpy bits out of the compost ! .Worth a try..:o) I did three seeds trays,so I will see how it goes .....
15 Mar, 2012
Fair play, be interesting to see the results. I may try setting up an experiment with different versions of the compost at some point. I hope you'll let us know how the mix works.
Sounds like you've had some good fun there :)))
15 Mar, 2012
I will,Samjp..it will be interesting to see if results are any different..watch this space ! Lol..
15 Mar, 2012
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The way I see it if it works for you and you get good results then obviously you carry on doing it, it is expensive to keep buying in the compost especially if you do use a lot, I always recycle any left over from previous seasons mixed in with new but always in the pots first as I discovered a few years back that spreading straight onto my garden resulted in more weeds being introduced, mainly that spreading stuff with tiny leaves, don`t know its name but never had it until I started buying in compost, its easier to remove from pots and baskets, obviously it does eventually go onto the garden but at least this way I stop it from getting out of hand.....
Thankyou for sharing your tips...
8 Mar, 2012